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Barcelona pam a pam by Alexandre Cirici

Fonts In Use [Unofficial] April 12, 2026

Contributed by Florian Hardwig

Barcelona Step By Step by Bert and Frances Strauss

Barcelona pam a pam is a city guide written by Alexandre Cirici Pellicer (1914–1983) and first published in 1971 by Editorial Teide, with photographs by Oriol Maspons (1928–2013) and drawings by the author. Bert and Frances Strauss translated the book to the English, as Barcelona Step By Step (1974). A version in Castilian Spanish, Barcelona paso a paso, followed by 1975.

Barcelona pam a pam (original Catalan version), with Cirici’s name in Akzidenz-Grotesk

Barcelona paso a paso (Castilian version), with Cirici’s name in Helvetica

All three editions feature the same cover design by Victor Rahola – with the title set on a curve, in A.M. Cassandre’s Bifur – albeit it with different colors for the hat of the man peering in from above. The interior pages are set in Folio and two typefaces by Simoncini: Karlgeorg Hoefer’s Permanent and Francesco Simoncini’s Aster.

Title page with Folio halbfett and Permanent

Table of contents in Permanent. The colophon on the left is set in Monotype Grotesque.

Folio mager for the chapter title “How To Use This Book”, Aster for the text

Detail with text set in two weights of Aster

Chapter opening with the number from Folio’s extrafett and the title in the mager.

Text is interspersed with bits of history that are presented in a smaller size, also from Permanent.

Spread from chapter 11 on Antoni Gaudí, with one of the photographs by Maspons. The caption is in Aster Italic.

Detail with text set in two weights of Permanent

Glossary of special terms

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